PR is not a luxury for your brand

Not so long ago, only a few manufacturers could boast having an ongoing, proactive PR effort as an integral part of their marketing plans. This isn’t because most of you didn’t see the value (actually, it’s the opposite ─ you have frequently expressed your wish to see your brand and products included in trade media’s editorial features), but because you have perceived it as a luxury ─ something that would be nice to have if you have extra money in your marketing budget to hire an outside PR consultant to manage it.

But because we now live in a content-driven society, if you aren’t producing it, distributing it and/or getting it published, your target customers may not discover your brand or equipment. PR is a powerful content marketing tool for manufacturers to utilize. PR is what you need to do to differentiate your products against big brand names and smaller competitors that are nipping at your heels.

PR isn’t just a marketing tool

The sales channel relies heavily on PR too. It is no longer enough for your marketing department to generate leads and toss them over to the sales team. Now, marketing is involved in the entire sales process, nurturing customers throughout the process.

Here’s quick refresher on the sales process:

And here is how public relations can play an active role in every step:

Awareness: People don’t just discover your products. Editors don’t either. You have to make an introduction.

Consideration: Customer research big purchases. PR content can give them the information they need to make a decision.

Selection: Provide your sales team case studies to show customers examples of other people/companies that purchased your equipment before and how they are succeeding with it. Make it easy for your customers to feel good about purchasing from you.

Interaction: After the sale, PR will continue to make customers feel good about their purchase decision. Want to make them feel even more important? Interview them for an article.

Loyalty: A proactive PR effort that incorporates a variety of communications platforms that drive loyalty and give customers the opportunity to voice their own brand affinity.

When you start to think of PR as a content marketing tool, it is no longer optional ─ it is a must! So if you don’t have an active PR effort (or if your efforts are not constant) as part of your marketing initiatives, it’s time to make the decision to get one going. Give me a call or shoot me an email, I’d be happy to chat with you on how to get started.